(Note: I can’t post in my own thread, because it was moved here from CS (where anyone can post) to General (where you have to have an active account to post). So agree with me or disagree, but I can’t respond. So, if you’re asking me questions here, you’ll never get an answer.)
Hello Folks,
Blizzard has a serious problem with public perception of their account action procedures. A significant portion (not most, I am not going there… but significant, yes) of the player base believes in several myths regarding this game. And while silly, playful myths are OK, pervasive, image-damaging myths that are perpetuated by things like rumor and confirmation bias are not.
This asinine idea that account actions are automated, for one.
The ignorance and myth continue to this day because of an unfortunate fact. The uninformed community that believes in the myth spends lots of energy “proving” the myth with unrelated facts. The uninformed community then feeds off of the nonsensical “evidence” provided by others, and the myth persists. To Blizzard’s detriment.
Unfortunately, Blizzard does little in the vain of pushing back against these fearmongerers. Yes, there are short official statements from time to time, but as Fox Mulder once said, “…all of the evidence to the contrary isn’t entirely dissuasive.” Blizzard would benefit from some strong pushback against this nonsense.
I know, I know. The exact policies and procedures must remain secret so that people don’t “rules lawyer” the policies to live right on the edge.
However, it is possible to make, say, a video, featuring someone prominent from perhaps the Dev team, as well as some GMs, and just go through the process. Show no names (of players), show no specifics. Just run through the process. Here is what a report looks like from our end. Here is how we look up what you were really doing. Here is how an appeal works.
You could discuss things in the video such as the fact that correlation does not imply causation. Soooooooo many people come in here and state outright, “I was mining a node at the time and got banned!” or, “I was in the middle of attacking another player and I got a non-participation ban!”
If you don’t push the fact that correlation does not imply causation, and a player doesn’t understand that, the above can - I suppose - seem unbelievable to a player.
You could do a video, a series of videos, a series of detailed articles. Shoot (and I am dead serious), you could invite members of the Community Council or MVP program to your offices to actually view the process. One of them could then write an article on it.
Something. Anything. You guys are an amazing, legendary, awesome gaming company, and your good name is getting destroyed by ignorant players. In such places like Reddit threads where everyone chimes in and gives their (inaccurate, irrelevant, flat out made-up) evidence as to why Blizzard CS is nothing more than a machine, auto-banning and auto-suspending people left and right all day. It’s sad to me.
I don’t know what else to suggest, honestly. The never-ending stream of players that come through here, convinced of an auto-ban, stupefied because what they were doing at the exact time of receiving the ban wasn’t bannable, is far too excessive, IMVHO.
Thanks to all who read this. And have a good day, folks.
